Dear Friends, Today I join millions of Americans feeling the shocking loss of reproductive freedom in our country. This is not merely a political or legal issue. This is profoundly personal, speaking to an individual’s right to control their body and rely on a half-century of legal, constitutional certainty.The ability to decide when, how, and with whom to have a child is deeply important. That decision is a personal one, and one that should be decided by an individual in consultation with their doctor and family, not an ideological Supreme Court. Oregon is the only place in the U.S. where abortion is fully protected. We can be grateful to Planned Parenthood Oregon which has been preparing to receive a crushing influx of women seeking abortion care in the weeks and months to come.  There is a lesson to be learned from the relentless assault on reproductive freedom by the anti-choice forces. For one half-century the forces opposed to women’s reproductive freedom have been determined and relentless. Even when the tide flowed against them, they escalated their efforts fighting for what they could achieve. The cumulative effect of their assault is evidenced not just with the Supreme Court decision reversing Roe v. Wade, but in the gains made in states across the country.We must be as focused, as determined, and strategic as they have been. We must be prepared to fight each new legal challenge to abortion care. Health care providers who continue to offer abortion services must be protected. Congress should pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify a person’s right to the full spectrum of reproductive care. This is not the end of the fight. Rather this is the beginning of a new chapter in which we must stand strong and intensify OUR efforts to protect the majority of people living in the United States. We know what to do. We understand the challenge. We have been successful in the past. And we can’t afford not to be successful in the future.Courage,Earl BlumenauerMember of Congress